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Chapter 02
While I was carrying the laundry basket, grunting as I moved toward the clothesline, I heard a low voice from behind the wall.
I’m the only one who entered the palace at age six.
Hmph. Someone is talking about me!
Feeling a sudden thrill, I hid myself close to the wall.
It was one of the habits I developed after coming here.
“Yeah, through Maria’s recommendation.”
“What about the father?”
“They said they don’t know.”
“Why did the kid’s mother abandon her?”
“Why else? Probably to start a new life as if the child never existed.”
“Oh my.”
“That’s unfortunate. A pitiful kid. But honestly, who here isn’t pitiful?”
I completely agreed with that last line.
When I first entered as an apprentice maid, everyone was kind to me.
It was because Maria, who was the head maid of the annex at the time, had brought me in.
I also tried to act politely to everyone back then, since I was the type to give back what I received.
But after Maria left, the way people treated me changed—and I had no choice but to change too.
“Is Lady Maria doing well?”
“How would I know that?”
The head maid snapped back sharply at the careless question.
Maria was currently working in the eastern wing of Labonne Palace, where the First Prince stayed.
Even for someone intelligent and hardworking, it was quite a sudden promotion.
The current head maid and head butler seemed to dislike Maria. So of course, they also disliked me, who was brought in through her recommendation.
“Anyway, she’s amazing. I want to catch the prince’s attention too. Even Lady Xabier would be fine, as long as I get connected somehow.”
It seemed they believed Maria’s promotion happened because she seduced Declen.
Maybe they even worried she would become a prince’s consort. They probably didn’t like someone from their own position rising that high.
‘Maybe the head maid just has sharp eyes.’
In reality, Maria and the First Prince were quite close.
I sniffed and lifted my basket again, quickening my steps. As I turned the corner, the head maid and a maid I only vaguely knew noticed me and flinched. Their exchanged looks were full of embarrassment.
I glanced at them struggling awkwardly, then kept walking.
If you’re going to gossip, at least make it interesting… like talking about my personality or something.
Listening to how others interpret my character would actually be fun. “It’s a pity she has no parents” was such a boring, outdated judgment.
“Where are you going?”
Maybe they felt guilty for being caught talking about me, or maybe they were annoyed I ignored them—the head maid stopped me.
I shrugged.
“You told me to finish my work.”
Behind me as I walked away, I heard them say, “That’s exactly why I don’t like her.”
‘Annabella, from now on this is your place.’
On the very day I dreamed of my mother, I had to hear something like that.
A mother who abandoned me to start a new life.
‘I wish that were true.’
Until I came to the palace, I rarely got called by my name.
In my small world, my mother was everything. She called me just “ugly one.”
I used to think, what kind of person says that? But when I saw her bright smile, I couldn’t even stay angry.
Well, at least she was smiling.
Around that time, I was deeply troubled.
Because I already knew the truth—that the “mother” in front of me would one day abandon me.
I would enter the palace and become a maid, and someday I would serve Declen Barlum, the First Prince.
And then I would die.
I know all of this because I am an isekai transfer—someone who was reborn into this world.
This place was inside a novel I had read before.
‘Why did it have to be this role?’
Annabella, the character I possessed, was someone who would be used as a disposable pawn by the First Prince and die in the end.
In the Etharinta Empire, Emperor William Barlum invaded the Kingdom of Lienna two years after his coronation. To crush rebellion, he executed all royal bloodlines of Lienna—except Evelyn, the “Daffodil of Lienna.”
The setting was complicated, but what I remember is this:
William loved Evelyn and tried to make her empress after she gave birth to his son.
However, in the Dragon Empire of Etharinta, “dragon legitimacy” could not be ignored.
According to the founding legend, an ancient dragon appeared when the continent was suffering from endless wars against monsters.
When hope was gone, the founder of the empire made a pact with the ancient dragon and gained immense power.
With that power, he led victories across the continent, and with the sacrifice of a saint, a hero awakened and defeated the final dragon-like demon, ending the great war.
The kingdoms that fought in that war came to worship dragon power, and “dragon legitimacy” was believed to flow only in the southern believers of the dragon.
Unfortunately, Lienna in the north was excluded.
So Evelyn could only remain the emperor’s lover, while the empress became Angelina, the mother of the Second Prince, Xabier.
After that, Evelyn was locked in a separate palace and slowly fell ill until she died. On the very day she died, Xabier was born.
Her funeral was pitiful, while Xabier’s birth celebration was the grandest ever held.
After Evelyn’s death, those who had disliked her existence celebrated, saying the Lienna royal line was finally gone.
But they didn’t know there was one surviving royal of Lienna.
Declen—the son of the emperor and Evelyn.
Perhaps out of guilt over Evelyn’s death, the emperor recognized Declen as the First Prince. But Declen was not satisfied with that.
He, who loved his mother more than anything, decided at just four years old that he would restore his mother’s homeland.
In the end, he succeeded in killing William Barlum and becoming emperor. He erased Etharinta from history and declared the Lienna Empire.
This was the first half of Etharinta Reconstruction, the novel I read.
After that, there was something about the son of a great mage family searching for Etharinta again… but I don’t really remember.
I only read the beginning. It wasn’t that interesting—I only read it because the male lead had the same name as my previous life name, “Green,” so it felt strange.
I was possessed into this world before the story even began. At this point, some people in Lienna had already formed a secret organization to rebuild Lienna in hiding. The leader of that group was Declen. My mother, Mago Peril, was also from a Lienna shaman family and was part of that group.
Mago Peril approached Xabier disguised as his lover to trap him—and as a result, I was born.
For two generations, I inherited that mission and ended up entering the palace.
Xabier didn’t even know I was his daughter—or even that he had a daughter at all.
‘How would he have known?’
Before the emperor died in the original story, Declen’s legitimacy was questioned.
Because his eyes were not gold.
Xabier, however, had golden eyes, so the people of the empire had high expectations of him. Many supported him as the next emperor. Yet ironically, Xabier wanted Declen to become emperor instead.
Maybe out of guilt… or maybe he simply didn’t want the throne.
But Declen’s mother was from a defeated kingdom. As people from that kingdom began to rise in various fields like knights and merchants, Declen became increasingly hated by the empire’s citizens. No matter how much Xabier tried to protect him by acting badly himself, it was useless.
Eventually, just as Xabier was about to be appointed crown prince—
I, Annabella, gave a damaging testimony that ruined him.
In other words, my role was to push the Second Prince to his death.
‘I’m sorry, Mother, but I’m not doing it.’
Come at me, original story. I surrender.
I was planning to live quietly like I didn’t exist.
Declen kills the emperor four years from now.
When I’m twelve.
Until then, I’ll just work as a maid, save up a good severance package, convince my mother, and return to the countryside where we used to live together.
